It's Hero Time!
by benodite
Summary: Summer trips were supposed to be full of campfires and traveling to see all the sites you could, not fighting aliens who want your arm and the thing attached to it. (T for violence and some swearing maybe.) Crossposted from AO3
1. Just You & I & Grandpa Max & 10 Aliens

_The small ship dodged and ran circles around the much larger ship following it, in the hopes to overwhelm it with speed. There was too much at risk, and while the larger ship had heavy artillery and an alien hell bent on owning the universe at his leisure._

 _If only the cloaking function would work, though there was no indication to the pilot that there had even been one successfully implemented given the time restraints. A swear echoed through the cockpit._

 _The much larger spacecraft unfortunately grew tired of the chase and gained the upperhand long enough to plow its enemy straight through a particularly gap free range of asteroid belt._

 _They managed to forcefully jerk away to the side, the entire ship rattling as it did so. Red overhead lights flashed in contrast to the green glow of the controls._

 _They probably wouldn't have enough energy to get to their exact planned route but they had to get the tyrant and his crew off their trail long enough to at least make a pit stop._

 _They however did have enough remaining power to incapacitate their assailant, enough to be a nasty thorn in his side._

 _"Haul damage 20%." a dark figure supplied, observing a glowing circular monitor. "Systems still operational." he turned to face his leader._

 _The small ship veered further away from the astral belt, in open space._

 _Pupiless red eyes narrowed at the sight before him. "I have come too far to be denied. The Omnitrix shall be mine!" Long fingers shook, palm turned upwards almost as if in supplication. "My conquest will continue and there has not and never will be a being that can foolishly dare to stop me!"_

Gwen sat in the booth seat of her Grandfather's RV, head propped up with a palm under her chin. She didn't understand why she had to go on a road trip with her doofus cousin and well-meaning but eccentric Grandpa Max.

Ben hung from a tree outside the school with a dejected countenance alongside someone Gwen didn't know and hopefully wouldn't ever have to know. Regardless of how Ben may or may not have deserved it, Gwen felt a twinge of sympathy. It wasn't right for the bullies to have done that to him (her cousin may be the biggest doofus of the century but he knew for a fact nothing could possess him to want to hang himself up by his own underwear in a tree).

That twinge of sympathy was cached away to allow her to properly brood. There were school programs and summer programs she wanted to keep up with. Martial arts for one thing couldn't be neglected, especially with how much she wanted to do it.

"Come on, Ben! You're burning daylight and I want to make it to the campsite by nightfall!" Grandpa Max was as gungho as usual about everything he did.

"Uhh...Grandpa? A little help here?"

After a brief and embarrassing struggle Ben boarded the RV, hand reaching back to linger near his tailbone with a wince. He straightened up, a bright grin on his still round, big headed face.

"Ohhh, you have no idea how long much I've been looking forward to this!" His shoulders tensed after a moment, it unnerved her the way he stood stock still as if sensing something. He swiveled over to her.

"Okay, what are you doing here?" he turned his head to look at their grandfather in horror "What is she doing here!?" Ben accentuated his frustration with an accusatory finger.

Gwen shook off the feeling of unease to address her cousin.

"Take it easy, dweeb. This wasn't my idea."

"Then whose was it?"

"Well, someone had the bright idea to convince my Mom that going on a summer trip would be 'good for me and be a valuable life experience!'" Gwen's arms crossed across her chest, once more outwardly petulant.

"Grandpa please tell me you didn't-" Ben pleaded, as if spending the summer with his grandfather and cousin was too much of a miserable idea to bear.

"I thought it would be a fun idea; your cousin tagging along this year." His eyes narrowed at the pair. "Is that a problem?"

The two cousins exchanged a pained glance.

"Of course not!" Gwen said, forcing a smile.

"Problems? No problems here!" Ben added.

Half way through the trip from where Ben laid on his side of the booth a loud sigh sounded. Gwen felt a headache building, when Ben sighed like that nothing good came of it.

"I waited all year for this trip," Ben began, glaring at her out of the corner of his eye "and now the queen of cooties is along for the ride. This summer's gonna take forever."

"Hey!" Gwen felt her blood boil "You're not the only one who had their own summer plans all set up too, you know?" she pulled out a carefully folded color coded chart. "I color coded it so I would never do the same thing twice." Ben made a face "and seeing your dweeb face isn't in it at all!"

"Hey!" Ben objected just as she had before. "Grandpa and I do this every summer, you could have refused." she couldn't tell if that were an exaggeration or not.

"Once my Mom has something in her head it's hard to stop her. Now I'm stuck with my geekizoid cousin in an unairconditioned RV, camping for three months."

Ben glared at her and she stubbornly returned it with her own.

"Geek."

"Jerk."

Grandpa max looked behind him at the pair, eyebrows bunched together. "Something tells me this is going to be a long, long summer." He let out a yawn and focused his full attention back to the road.

Once they had set up for the night at the campsite, there was plenty of sun left. Just enough for it to not be overwhelming but not enough to rouse fireflies. Grandpa Max emerged from the RV with a bowl full of still wriggling worms. Ben and her both made a face at the sight, Ben's in disgust and her own in disbelief.

"Chow time~"

"...Okay, I give up. What are those?" Ben asked before Gwen had the chance to.

"Marinated Meal Worms," he sounded all too excited than he had any right to be at the prospect of eating worms for Gwen's comfort. "hard to find them fresh in this state. You know, they're considered a delicacy in some countries." Grandpa Max smiled. Who would even have a demand for these unless they were fishing?

"...and totally gross in others." Gwen said, nose wrinkling as one of the worms squirmed out of the bowl and onto the splintering wooden table.

"If these don't sound good, I've got some smoked sheep's tongue in the fridge."

"Couldn't we just have a burger or something?" Gwen nodded her head, a slight tilt, in agreement.

"Nonsense! This summer's gonna be an adventure for your tastebuds; I'll grab the sheep's tongue."

Grandpa Max nearly skipped back into the RV. Ben took a chance with the opening created. "I have a half eaten bag of corn chips and a candy bar in my bag, you?"

"Some rice cakes and hard candy."

"Think we can make them last the whole summer?" they looked down at the table, observing the rusty nails. Twin groans. Gwen hoped Ben at least had his Tetanus shot.

 _The larger ship was hot on the unfortunate pilot's tail. It easily took out a good chunk of the ships behind._

 _"Their propulsion systems have been destroyed."_

 _"Prepare to board! I want the Omnitrix now." he leaned forward like he could physically will the ship to his own._

 _It prepared to charge with an orange light, giving the ship ahead of him time to fire at his center of control, causing his ship to lose control of it's power source and fire at the spaceship in front of it. Out of the remaining 80% of the ship only 10% remained. The nose of the ship sped up, breaking apart and propelling a small pod through space. It crashed towards earth and caught fire right above Earth's orbit._

Grandpa Max stood between the two cousins and looked back and forth between them. "Who wants to roast marshmallows?" unfortunately his grandchildren appeared to be too preoccupied with their respective pieces of tech. "Okaaay then. Um, how about we tell scary stories?"

"Scarier than having to spend a summer with a freak of a cousin?" Ben chimed in with a laugh.

Gwen looked over her shoulder at Grandpa Max, ignoring her computer screen for a second. "I'd love to, Grandpa, but I'm doing a web search on cures for extreme doofusness. Nothing yet, Ben, but let's not give up hope!"

"I-" Grandpa Max's yawn stopped Ben in his tracks.

"Grandpa?" Ben and Gwen questioned together.

"If neither of you are in the mood for doing anything together then we ought to sleep, don't you think?"

"But Grandpa it's not even fully dark out and I wanted to take a walk!""

"Why don't we do that first thing in the morning. You can check around for a small souvenir tomorrow even."

"I think I'm old enough to walk around at night by myself." a nearby owl hooted loudly, causing Ben to jump.

"Fine. Fine, but do I have to go to sleep right away?"

"You just have to be in your bed." Gwen sighed in relief, at least then she could finish her search.

"Grandpa," Ben's voice suddenly close to her ear startled her "Gwen's looking at reports on Roswell! She'll be relieved we didn't tell scary stories tonight." she reached back with out looking to swat at him and closed her laptop with her free hand.

"It's interesting though. Do you think the government really covers up stuff like that?"

"Gwen, it was obviously weather balloons and flight tests. I know it sounds strange to hear, but, there have been mannequins and test dummies for years and years." Gwen tried to not pay too much mind to the way Ben's eyes slid up to the sky.

Gwen tread through the woods, twigs snapping underfoot. Where had Ben gone? He'd been acting strange all night, stranger than usual and after waking up from her half dozed off state for a glass of water she'd seen that he was nowhere to be found.

So there she was, wandering around the woods in nearly pitch blackness. She'd been too rushed to grab a flashlight and her bed clothes weren't suited for wandering around at night outside.

She shivered a little and hugged herself. It was colder than it had any right to be this early at night.

She looked up at the sky trying to gauge where she was exactly. For all she knew Ben had backtracked to the RV and she was on a wild goose chase. But Grandpa Max had a right to have her look after Ben if he was asleep. She was much, much more mature than that doofus.

A streak of fire lit up a good portion of the the sky as it descended. Most objects from space burned up in the atmosphere, so to see a fairly large chunk of something was terrifying. She was half spun around to run in the opposite direction before she realized that when weird things happened Ben was always nearby. "...Ben!"

So like a doofus of Ben's level she ran straight towards where the object landed, the tightness in her chest restricting proper breathing. She had to see, had to make sure that Ben wasn't flattened and burnt to a crisp.

She skidded to a stop at the rim of the moderate sized crater, debris underfoot sliding over the edge.

Ben stood a foot away staring at the silver container below.

"Ben?" Gwen called out to her cousin, taking a handful of steps to her cousin and setting a hesitant palm on his shoulder.

Her stomach felt like she'd swallowed battery acid as she stared at the object in apprehension. Ben seemed to snap out of whatever daze he'd been in.

"I felt like something was coming so I came out to the woods."

"Felt like something was coming? What are you magic? Let's just get out of here it's probably something from NASA." not that she didn't want to know what it was, just that she had the feeling that it would only lead to something terrible happening.

"It doesn't feel like something from NASA. It almost hit me..." Ben shuffled his feet, a nervous energy about him. "Don't you feel it too? Something's gonna happen and it'll be because of that thing."

"You're starting to freak me out." Gwen said instead of agreeing with him. "Let's just go, Grandpa will get mad at us if we're both out here." Ben hesitated for a moment before agreeing.

He took a step away from the rim of the crater, foot catching on a root. His arms pinwheeled to keep him upright, but he began to tumble backwards still. Without thinking Gwen grabbed his arm.

They both rolled down into the crater, a tangle of limbs. Gwen dislodged her hand from its position under Ben's lower back to check and see if she'd bitten her tongue or broken anything. She seemed in good shape, in the middle of a crater created by an alien object with her cousin, in good shape regardless of the circumstances.

Gravity 1 - Gwendolyn 0.

"You give out lucky numbers too?" Gwen asked, scowling at her cousin. The amount of heat the pod gave off was unreal. Where she'd been cold only moments prior, she felt like she was in a sauna. Sweat beaded along her brow.

"What is this thing?" it cracked open, the tab of a soda can being pulled back times ten filled her ears.

An object that looked uncannily like a Watch glowed blue at the pair. It glowed brightly enough with a light not of this world that Gwen had to squint her eyes to look at it without hurting herself. The smart thing to do. Ben looked at it with wide eyes and let out a reverent exhale.

"What's a Watch doing in outer space and why is it beating?" Ben wondered aloud.

"Don't ask me," Gwen scrubbed a hand over her face to relieve the tension, freezing mid motion. "Wait. Wait, what do you mean beating?"

Ben looked at her as if she had lost all sense.

"It's like a heartbeat." Ben made a gesture to shush, quieting Gwen's retort, a look of concentration on his face.

Ben listened carefully to something Gwen couldn't hear, forming a fist. He flexed his hand to accompany the rhythm of his words. _"Buh- buh...buh, buh buh buh… buh-...buh, buh buh buh."_

"Ben are you saying that thing's...alive?" as hard as she listened, as long as she stared she couldn't understand a word Ben spoke.

"I never said that, I just said it was like a heartbeat." Ben objected, lower lip worried between his teeth.

He motioned to the object "It's right there so I don't get what's so hard to underst-" the Watch propelled through the air towards the pair, seemingly of its own want. Ben choked an involuntary sound, lodged somewhere in the back of his throat.

Gwen roughly shoved him to lay flat on the ground and blocked him with her own body. She'd only been with Grandpa Max and Ben for a few hours and Ben's act first personality was rubbing off on her. Great.

The Watch latched onto her wrist like a vice. She waved her arm away from her with a shriek.

"Gwen!"

"It's not coming off. Mr. Know-It-All-About-Out-Of-This-World-Junk don't say another word about it and help me get it off!" her words sped up, voice level rising quickly.

"I? I don't know if it'll even come off!" Ben protested, it's like it's melded to you?"

"We need Grandpa, maybe he'll know what this is?"

They climbed out of the crater with only minor difficulty and began the trek back to the RV. The chill meeting her feverish skin made her shiver uncomfortably. Ben's eyes hadn't left her arm once.

"What?" her irritability was justified in this moment, for once Ben gave her a break.

"Have you even looked at that thing since it latched on?"

"I've been trying to ignore it."

She glanced down at the blue and white Watch, sweat rapidly cooling on the back of her neck.

The band was a pristine white, a silver x crossing over the surface, the four ends stopping just an inch from a raised dial. The dial had four small, blue nubs in a cross formation, and a much larger nub to the left of the Watch's "face" from the position she looked at it. The inside of the dial glowed a faint blue.

"This is unreal." Gwen said in awe, foot steps faltering. Ben stood behind her, leaning forward to see what she was seeing. "What do you think it is?"

"A monster? Maybe an alien? I thought aliens were supposed to be short big headed gray things with black eyes saying "take me to your leader" and all that."

"We haven't even found out if there's water on other planets, I wonder what kind of life could survive without water?" she asked herself more so than Ben.

"Well, look at it. It kind of looks like it has flames for hair at the top, yeah?" Gwen could see what he meant, she felt an overwhelming curiosity fill her.

"Yeah, you're right. Maybe finding an alien Watch is the long sought after cure for severe doofusness?" she gently thumbed the figure. Her pinky brushed against something and the dial popped out a little.

Now inside the dial there was a bright blue glow glaring up into her face like the numbers of a digital clock first thing in the morning. A black diamond sat smack in the middle with a dark blue silhouette of an unknown figure. Gwen gently poked it, feeling a slight give as if it could be pressed down.

"Hey!" Ben protested "At least I'm not a dweeb! 'I wonder what kind of life could survive without water'? Do you even hear yourself?!" Gwen ignored him in favor of pressing down on the dial. A click rang out in the otherwise silent air. For a split second Gwen was both relieved and disappointed before she felt her arms begin to feel weighed down like lava temperature lead. Red coal like flesh sprang from her arm, rapidly covering the Watch and her body. She didn't have time to scream at the flash of searing pain. Her eyes in the traditional sense were no more and the excess deep red "scales" were incinerated by heat just below the surface, exposing a sentient flame.

Gwen stared at her hands nearly incapable of comprehending what had just transpired. The searing pain was nothing more than a lingering ache, easy enough to ignore. Instead of feeling like she was being burned alive it only felt like she'd wrapped herself up in a blanket on a much appreciated snow day.

"No way, you're on fire!" Ben exclaimed, hands reaching up to grip his own hair.

"Really, now what makes you think that?" she said dryly, hands on her hips. Her voice sounded strange, the crackling of embers.

"There's something on your chest." Gwen peeked down at herself. A raised black circle was located in the dead center of her chest, a glowing blue hourglass within it.

"I think it's more like in my chest? I wonder if there's anything I can do like this?" Gwen carefully treaded back to the crater, focusing on not burning anything and accidentally causing a forest fire.

"How should I test this out, Ben?" Gwen called over her shoulder. Ben stood a safe distance away at Gwen's insistence.

"Try writing your name? Maybe focus on how it feels?"

Gwen scoffed a little but listened for the most part, regardless. Feeling wasn't really a science. She applied what she knew about fire and used her hand like a large living flame pencil. Fire shot from her open palm, opposite hand palm down. She wrote her name if somewhat sloppily. With practice she could-

What was she thinking? She wanted to get the Watch off and figure out just what it was; not be stuck in a body that wasn't her own.

"Grandpa! No!" Ben shouted and Gwen swiveled around in time to see her grandfather with a fire extinguisher in hand.

"G-Grandpa?" she questioned. Grandpa Max's face was hard, the smile lines on his face seemed to have more weight, his eyes weren't the kind eyes that had always adored her.

"Grandpa that's Gwen!"

Grandpa Max's eyes bugged out of his head and he dropped the fire extinguisher with a clatter. It rolled to land at Ben's feet a few steps away.

"Grandpa, I found a Watch while looking for Ben. It wouldn't come off and then I turned into this," she gestured down to herself "monster thing!"

"Ben what were you doing out here?! I told you to stay inside the Rust Bucket."

"It's not his fault, Grandpa. He fell into the crater after I was about to take him back to the Rust Bucket. We both fell in, but he really was going to go back!" Grandpa's shoulders slumped.

"Will I be stuck as a monster forever, Grandpa?" Grandpa's tone went sharp.

"You're not a monster. You're an _alien_." he nearly covered his mouth after his slip up. The pair of cousins leveled him looks of disbelief. "I mean, you said it came from space right? It's obvious then."

 _"What do you mean it's not there?! This battle nearly cost me my life! And you say the Omnitrix is no longer on the transport?!" The alien, little more than a carved up chest cavity, leg hanging by a thread, face tentacles torn and shredded into ribbons. His breath came out in ragged pants. "Don't rest until you find it, I will have my power…"_

 _"Sensors indicate that a probe was jettisoned from the ship just before boarding. It landed on the planet_

Gwen's transformation ended with a glaring red flash, Grandpa Max had to turn his head and shield his eyes from the force of it.

Gwen stood, a normal, semi-normal (?) human girl. She looked down at her hands, startled by the sudden change. That had hurt as well, but more like a pin prick than the pain from before.

Grandpa Max gently curled a large palm around her forcep and lifted her arm to see what the Watch looked like himself. He looked back at Ben, an unreadable expression on his face. Ben nodded his head, the shrug of his shoulders confirming what Gwen had suspected from the beginning: No one had any idea of what was going on and she'd be stuck like this for awhile.

"You two head back to the Rust Bucket, I'd like to take a look at the crater that Watch created."

 _A park ranger stood at the edge of the tree lines. There had been reports of a large pillar of smoke above the forest, but as far as he could see there was nothing. Only the lingering smell of burnt soil. He stared up at the stars as if they could explain something to him. The park ranger sent one final look over his shoulder before getting back into his car and driving off. Perhaps it had been a prank and he was simply too gungho?_

They set off back to the RV in the darkness, the faint clicking of something metallic in Ben's pocket hitting off of a large object. Ben only stumbled once, weighed down by an unknown heavy object.

"It's pretty funny you were making fun of me earlier for reading on up on Roswell, but you were the freak that had to head out into the woods standing and waiting for a burning space object to flatten you! You were all like, "take me with you and the floating cows"!" Gwen laughed, tears forming in the corners of each eye.

 _A pod of their own fell from the larger space ship, locked onto the same coordinates as where the first pod was suspected to have landed. It created a similar crater before it broke apart to expose a large robotic being. It stood easily over nine feet, resembling a cross between a centaur and a crab._

 _It's red eyes locked onto the crater the Watch had created and blew up the remaining shell; leaving nothing more than a few shards of extraterrestrial metal and chunks of Earth upheaved. Two smaller disc shaped pieces disengaged from its shoulders to float off freely. Searching, searching._

 _Grandpa Max crouched behind a tree nearby, sweat forming along his brow. He emerged from his hiding spot once he deemed the coast clear and slid down into the crater. He picked up one of the remaining shards and frowned down at it._

 _"I don't like this one little bit."_

"You're a dweeb for following after me!" Ben insisted. She didn't have to see his face to know it was flushed a dusky red in frustration.

She was about to open her mouth when Ben spun around, raising his object above his head to swat at something just to the left and above her head. Gwen ducked away, narrowly avoiding a disc shaped robot and the fire extinguisher in Ben's hands.

"Looks like insisting our relative was a bigfoot and the paranoia it'd take to make that assumption came in handy for once." Gwen rested a hand over her heart to feel her racing pulse.

The piece of machinery short circuited and caught on fire. Ben fumbled with the fire hydrant for a moment before putting it out.

"I could hear it moving through the air, it sounded really freaky. And also he was way too hairy, his back was a like a carpet!"

Gwen listened carefully, focusing over the rush of blood in her ears left over from her first transformation.

A faint humming could be heard, Gwen's blood ran cold at the sound.

"We need to get out of here, now. But- but Grandpa Max."

Gwen hesitated at the idea of leaving their Grandfather alone in the woods with those things and who knows what else, but Ben had no such qualms.

"Grandpa Max can handle it, he eats all kinds of weird stuff, so whatever's out there is bound to be more afraid of him than he is of it!"

The Watch on Gwen's wrist finally glowed blue again causing her to nearly sob out of relief. Maybe she could figure out what else this Watch could do and find a way to get them out of this situation, all three of them.

She placed her hand around where she had accidentally the first time. After pressing one of the two knobs she was able to get the dial to raise up once more. "Fire guys better than no guy?" Her sweaty fingers slipped against the dial and the silhouette changed before her eyes. She carefully spun the dial once more and it happened again. Nine more times in rapid succession she saw nine other notably different forms. She smirked.

"Let's see what this thing can do!" She settled over a quadruped option and pressed the dial down.

Gwen felt her veins and muscles bulge, orange hair rapidly growing along her body. She felt her back hunch over and her eyes change form. She stood next to Ben on all fours as she sensed the world around her.

"You don't have any eyes? I wonder if that means you see like a bat or something? Don't scream though we don't want them finding us." Gwen wished she could verbally tell him to stop babbling. Drool dribbled from the sides of her mouth.

 _'Ew…'_

"Mind if I get on?" Gwen didn't really want him riding her like an oversized Alien Great Dane but she didn't really have any choice. Who knew what else was out there in these woods? She was the older of the two (seven seconds was still seven seconds) and Grandpa Max was counting on her to watch after Ben.

She lowered herself a little for Ben to climb on. He scrambled up her arm and did his best to wrap his legs around her chest, hands gripping the fur above her shoulders. It felt weird to have someone on her back like this but not uncomfortable. At least he wasn't pulling her fur out. She took off, bounding back to the campfire.

Based on the last transformation they had a limited amount of time left and she needed to grab weapons to arm themselves with if they wanted to be able to help Grandpa Max.

She came to a grinding halt next to the old picnic bench and Ben took a hint.

He climbed off of her to scour for any usable weapons. A minute later he returned with a steel baseball bat, a kitchen knife, and a plastic trash can lid.

She couldn't really complain with his lack of proper gear. It wasn't as if Grandpa Max had an arsenal in the Rust Bucket.

Ben climbed up once more and they set off, swinging through the trees and making large leaps across the ground long enough to smell for their Grandfather. Gwen paused on top of particularly sturdy tree branch. The slits on her neck flexing. Everything had a static fan in the middle of summer feel to it. Even Ben's stuttered breaths behind her sounded strange.

She saw things thermally, sensed things really. She felt something coming just as Ben's mouth opened to warn her.

She could sense things better than she could before. Gwen jumped from the tree, narrowly avoiding the both of them getting blown up with a laser sent from one of those robots.

She weaved her way through the forest to avoid either of them getting killed. Ben helplessly hung on for dear life, grunting as he was bounced against and off of his cousin's back.

They hid from the robot behind a tree, the soft beep of what Gwen assumed were it's sensors made her heart race. Once it was close enough she leapt onto its back, Ben letting out a shriek of surprise at his sudden position.

"As much as I like leap frog don't you think we're a little too old for this?!" Gwen did her best to ignore him.

The robot sent them backwards, Gwen's back crashing against a tree. Gwen could hear the tree splinter and Ben's wheezy exhale from his position around her neck. She growled at him and he slid back down to her back.

Gwen used her sharp teeth to tear into the inner workings of the robot. Chunks of metal and tubes fell to the forest floor as they zoomed closer and closer to a rock face.

The Watch gave a warning beep and she held on for a moment longer to make sure the robot would run into the rock face before she jumped off. Her Watch let out another beep and in a flash of red they landed in a tangle of limbs in a bush.

They rose with matching groans.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. That was awesome!" Ben replied with a shaky grin. Gwen took a step forward, ready to go looking for Grandpa Max again before she hear a familiar whirring.

'Not now…' Gwen looked at the robot above them in horror. It floated down enough, and she just knew it was scanning her before it attacked.

If she died she was going to be in so much trouble. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, heart racing wildly.

She heard the telltale crunch of metal on metal greet her ears, green eyes blinking open. Ben stood in front of her and over the extraterrestrial robot. He brought the bat down again and again, four times until it seemed to finally be taken out.

His knees knocked together but he laughed, looking at Gwen over his shoulder.

"Way to go dweeb, you're the hero here and I had to take it out."

"Only because I was blinking."

"You normally almost pee yourself when you're blinking?" Gwen decided to say nothing.

The robot caught fire and they both knew that couldn't mean anything good.

Ben and Gwen fled from the machines carcass in time to avoid the blast it created.

They let out sighs of relief before feeling a large hand grip each of their shoulders. Gwen screamed before realizing it was just her Grandfather.

"G-Grandpa…"

"What were you two doing?"

"We were trying to get back to the Rust Bucket when these robot things attacked us!"

"We got worried and were going to go after you. We didn't know what would happen to you alone in the woods." Gwen hung her head, feeling an intense scolding coming her way, but instead Grandpa Max knelt to embrace both of them tightly.

"Don't be so reckless from now on, you two have each other, but you need to be careful."

They walked back to the rust bucket to further explain the strange circumstances.

"I figured out how to work it at least. It has a time limit and I have 10 different alien forms to choose from. I don't know what the other eight are yet but… I'm still learning." Grandpa Max smirked at her.

"With a device as powerful as that..Well, I guess that just means we'll have to help you figure it out and fast."

"Really Grandpa?" Ben sounded more excited than Gwen did and she _had the Watch attached to her._

 **Mayday! Mayday! Somebody help us, we're under attack from some sorta...I know you're not gonna believe me but- uh robot!**

The trio looked at each other as the radio feed cut out.

"You don't think…?" Gwen began.

"Sounds just like those things that attacked us earlier." his eyes flickered over to the Watch on Gwen's arm. "They must be looking for the Watch!"

"Where'd the signal come from, Grandpa?" Then that meant it was indirectly her fault. She had to take responsibility somehow.

"We need to help those people!"

They quickly made it to where the emergency broadcast had come from, flashlights and the baseball bat Ben had dented up in hand. Gwen took a deep breath and selected an alien.

Grandpa Max nodded and Ben squeezed the bat eagerly. She slammed her palm down on the Watch's dial and felt her body become crystalline.

"Cool! What can this guy do?" Ben asked. Gwen formed a fist, the accompanying sound of shattering glass nearly alarmed her. But… it felt natural.

"Something useful." she had a half formed plan in her mind and a time limit.

The large robot to have crashed down blew up a few campers and RVs, sending people into a frenzy like ants who had their hill kicked down by a spiteful child. It scanned through the area and observed the crowd. There was no omnitrix in sight.

"I'll take it, you guys get the campers to safety." Grandpa Max and Ben nodded, taking off to do what they could as Gwen rolled her shoulders in preparation.

She ran after the large robot. It seemed to attack primarily with lasers. It fired off at a few retreating people and picked up an older park ranger as he tried to help a women get to safety.

Gwen felt her blood...whatever was inside her at the moment actually - crystals didn't have blood- boil.

"Leave him alone!" Gwen shouted over the pandemonium around them.

The robot carelessly dropped the ranger and instinctively Gwen formed a slide of sorts with crystal to help break his fall.

"Pick on someone your own size!" The robot sent her flying backwards through the air to hit a parked RV. A red flash quickly followed her causing the RV to blow up and the fire to climb higher and higher in the sky. It must've been nearly a full tank.

Gwen sliced through the metal with her arm like a can opener.

"So I can change the form of crystals on my body and I can propel them at will?"

The robot towered over her. "Uh oh…"

She nearly avoided being flattened by it. 'I just have to keep it distracted until it fires a laser again..'

She leapt forward to slice at a leg. The robot easily avoided her and launched itself into the air, body twisting like a top spinner.

"This isn't gonna feel good…" Gwen quickly moved out of the way, only her legs trapped under the force of its landing.

Ben and Grandpa Max helped the ranger get down from the car he'd landed on. People screamed and cried around them, too afraid to logically move around.

"What is going on here?" the Ranger choked.

"No time to explain. Diamondhead's on our side! We need to get everyone a safe distance away." Grandpa Max and Ben ran, motioning the older Ranger to follow them. He hesitated, frozen stock still as he watched the much shorter creature (?) face off against the giant robot.

He very narrowly avoided being barreled into by the being referred to as Diamondhead was sent flying. The jeep crumpled with the force of the hit and that finally set him into motion.

Gwen shook off the feeling and quickly got up to face the robot again.

Ben stopped in the middle of the large parking lot, mouth opened in awe as his cousin dodged the blasts from the robot. She really looked like a hero

The robot blasted a tree and before Ben could move it was falling down to land on top of him. Gwen rushed to his side to split the tree perfectly in half. Crystals protruded from her shoulders and back.

"Even?"

"T-totally." Gwen nodded and focused her attention back on the enemy.

It lifted her up, three finger like appendages securing her in its grip. She squirmed in its hold and if she had to breath like she used to, she'd have fainted from loss of oxygen. The robot tugged at her arm and all she could do was grunt and focus on being like an alien can opener. Large shards of crystal broke through the robot's grip, a small fire starting in it's hand.

It flung her a short distance away into a brick building. Probably a help desk or a bathroom...gross.

Grandpa Max hoisted Ben up and behind a fallen tree to his side.

"Gwen!" Grandpa shouted as the robot advanced towards her. Gwen pulled herself from the rubble once more, tired of the repeated occurrence.

"Hit me with your best shot!" she motioned to her chest with a hand. It fired a laser at her for the umpteenth time that evening but this time Gwen was ready. There weren't any civilians nearby and she'd given herself ample time to direct them to just the right spot.

She forced her palms together, side by side as the laser approached closer and closer. The crystals from her hands formed to make a crude mirror, halting the flow of it. She slid against the ground, heels digging in. Just a little more. The edges of her makeshift mirror rose to concentrate the laser's beam in one area.

"What goes around comes around!" unknowingly the two cousins declared together, Ben's words punctuated with a short whoop.

Gwen directed the laser back to the robot and it blew up in a spectacular show.

People watched on in awe and horror as the crystalline humanoid turned around to face them.

"Alright way to go that's my g-" the nearby people looked sharply over at Max.

"Hero! Way to go Diamondhead!" Ben shouted, catching the attention of everyone, Gwen included. She nearly face palmed.

"My work here is done." Gwen said, striking a heroic pose that hopefully looked more natural than it felt.

She ran off just in time to be out of sight by the time the Watch gave its first warning beep.

"Who was that?" Ben heard one of the civilians speak up.

T _he large space ship had tank shaped bots roaming the outside to repair the major damage done._

 _The tentacled alien glared out of his healing containment pod._

 _"Failure?! Unbelievable." he croaked in gasping breaths. "The puny Terra being that is keeping the Omnitrix from me will soon hang on my trophy wall." small bots crawled around the the pod with him, moving through the sickly green liquid with ease._

"Gwen, how did it feel?" Ben asked suddenly from his side of the table. He stared out the window, eyes absent.

"Huh?" Gwen said looking up from her computer.

"How did it feel? To go hero?"

"It felt like I was me, but also not me." She huffed at the hopeful look on his face. "Jeesh, that sounds like something you'd say. Who knew doofusness was contagious?"

Grandpa Max laughed from the steering wheel.

"What's it even matter to you?" Gwen asked, genuine curiosity seeping into her words. Ben's shoulders bunched up to his ears.

"It doesn't matter." he shifted in his seat. "So who do you think would win in a fight between Heatblast and Diamondhead?"

"Who and who?"

"You know your aliens!" As if that were the most obvious conclusion in the world to come to.

"First off, I'd be fighting myself and I wouldn't win or lose. Second off, I'm not naming them, that's so uncool."

"Is too cool! Grandpa what do you think?"

"Ben, your cousin's the one with the Watch. I think she gets the final say in the matter."

"How will we know which alien we're talking about if we don't name them? 'Oh, alien that's crystal is totally the alien we need to save the day'!" Gwen had to admit that'd be troublesome.

"It's not like I'll have it forever, we're going to try and get it off, Ben."

"If I had it, I would never get rid of it." Ben insisted, drawing in on himself once more. The RV was silent for a number of miles. Grandpa Max pulled into the parking lot of McDonalds and removed the keys from the ignition.

"Now, you two have had a long night… You didn't really seem to like the sautéd mealworms, at least not yet. We can have something not proper summer road trip food for once."

The two cousins looked at eachother, joy lighting up their faces.

"I want a Big Mac!"

"I want a Bigger Big Mac!"

The RV was filled with the sounds of joyous laughter.

 _The Park Ranger returned to the woods the next morning after a new mode of transportation had been made available._

 _He had to check again. He parked the same place he had the night prior, recognizing his own tire tracks. With a slam of his door he was out and in the woods._

 _Less than two miles in he found what he was looking for. Twin craters and scraps of metal around. He shone his flashlight in to observe the furthest crater. Inside he could make out what looked like the letter G burnt into the soil._

 _"What on Earth?"_

 _It appeared he wasn't the only person to find what they were looking for. He reached for the portable radio on his hip._

 _"Attention, we need someone on the scene of where reports came in on a potential forest fire last night. We can't let this get out to the public."_

Birds chirped around the campsite they'd returned to long enough to properly pack up.

Ben and Grandpa Max were loading up the Rust Bucket, Grandpa Max handing the bundles of their stuff up for Ben to place in the Rust Bucket.

"Where's your cousin?" He asked suddenly, letting Ben pause long enough to wipe the sweat from his brow.

"Haven't seen her since breakfast."

They heard a whoosh of movement a short distance away as a bipedal blue skinned alien came to a halt before them. It ran on balls attached to its feet and in Ben's scientific opinion, looked like a dinosaur and a kangaroo had a freaky baby together.

"Gwen?" Grandpa asked as the dust cleared.

The black face shield moved to reveal a reptilian face.

"Yes. Sorry I'm late, let me finish this up." she offered, packing the remaining supplies into the Rust Bucket within seconds. The Watch gave two warning beeps in quick succession before she was back in her own skin.

"Where were you?"

"I had to pick some stuff up, Grandpa." Gwen motioned to the backpack she had on.

"I grabbed you something too, Ben." She opened her backpack to show him a six pack of Coke cans.

"You got even more alien books?" Ben said in disbelief as he looked down at the books just under the soda she'd procured.

"The Watch timed out just in time for me to go to the library without getting strange looks. I don't think anybody saw me."

Grandpa nodded thoughtfully. "Make sure to not misuse your powers, Gwen."

"I think this is going to be the best summer ever." Ben said, nodding to himself. He accepted a can of soda from Gwen and passed one to his Grandfather. The three of them each popped the tabs of their soda, holding the cans away from them as they fizzled and some spilled to the ground.

After letting them settle down the Tennyson trio bumped their cans together in an impromptu toast.

"Absolutely." Grandpa Max said taking a swig of his drink.

"Well, it's definitely going to be interesting." Gwen said though deep down she couldn't help but agree with Ben.


	2. When in the K Do As T rex Did

Gwen's lungs were fire along with her whole world. The inside of the building smelled freshly lit, and with the pressing urge to stop two crimes before the night ended she had to act fast.

A mother and son were the only two unable to get out of the fire in time. The pair stared at her, mouths agape, the boy gripping something close to his chest. Gwen took in a deep breath and drew the fire to her. The civilians looked at her like a shepherd. The floor panels shook under them and she knew there wasn't much time left. The boy coughed into his shirt collar.

"Come with me." The pair fell in line with her, searching for an exit in case she really was a fire monster that wanted them gone and could bring back the fire she had so easily taken.

Gwen disregarded the crumbling staircase, taking only long enough to reassure the young boy that everything was going to be okay before she sprang into action. He stared up at her with wide, innocent eyes and she knew what she had to do.

The brick wall gave way to a blast of heat, carving out a rectangle of an outer wall.

"I need you both to hold your breath." Gwen looked over her shoulder to see them nod in agreement. "Then on three. One, two… three!" she summoned a tunnel of fire to transport the three of them. The boy stood on unsteady feet, stiff in his Mother's hold.

"Are you okay?" they nodded and Gwen was off propelling herself through the air, hot in pursuit of the robbers.

Faintly she heard Ben exclaim a loud "Is that a golden Sumo Slammers card?! No waaaaay!"

"Stupid diversions. Let's set an apartment complex on fire with a molotov cocktail and have all available law enforcement and emergency personnel focus on dozens of lives you put in danger because you couldn't just go to Jared's. Stupid, _stupid._ " The getaway car swerved around the road. The tires squealed.

"...That'll work." she nodded to herself and took a deep breath to compose herself.

She wound her right arm back focusing the energy from where the heat in her burned the hottest at her core and through her shoulder to her hands. Gwen pressed the heels of her hands together, hands cupped to direct the blast more precisely.

The rear tire melted, a trail of liquid rubber following the thieves. The driver became even more reckless and the van abruptly switched lanes. Gwen directed another blast of fire to the front passenger side tire.

The only course of action they could make was to turn into a nearby alley.

Gwen's mind raced with possible courses of action. There was only so much time left of her transformation and it wasn't as if she got more than one… maybe two warning beeps before her transformation timed out.

She heated the top of the van, slammed her hand through a weakened crumple point and peeled the roof off like it was the last Batman sticker in the line of a five year old who got their hands on the class sticker sheet.

"Everyone out! Hands against the wall over there," she nodded to the end of the alley "and there won't be any problems." The passengers scrambled to comply, trembling.

They stood at the wall backs to her. The Watch gave a warning beep. "Don't move." she had just enough time to warn them before the Watch's transformation wore off in a flash of red light. The crooks cried out as it cast a shadow of her alien form.

Police sirens sounded off nearby and not too far away out of the alley she could see the rust bucket idling on the opposite of the street. Ben nearly had his face pressed to the windows. She ran to the mouth of the alley, footsteps light.

"Help! Help! Help! Help!" she called as loudly as her lungs and vocal cords would allow. Gwen lingered in the shadows and watched as the police answered something in their cars.

"HELP! HELP!"

"Hey wait a-" one of the robbers swore when he realized they'd been played. His face behind the black ski mask contorted into a look of horror. Gwen darted across the street and climbed into the Rust Bucket as fast as humanly possible. Gwen crouched underneath the table in the back of the Rust Bucket.

"They're running out of the alley!' Ben informed her, the nervous energy he exuded was palpable in the otherwise silence of the motor home.

Gwen heard shouting and police sirens closer than before.

"Annnnnd they got them! Way to get them with their tail between their legs! The cops will get all the credit though. Seems kind of stupid if you ask me."

Gwen moved to sit in the booths, a book uncomfortably jabbing into her. _Alien Conspiracy: Unraveling the UFO/alien Mystery_ by Chris B. Evans. Wrong side of the booth. She tossed the book over to the opposite side of the booth seating.

"It's not like I wanted this thing to begin with. I need to keep a low profile." Gwen pressed a few napkins to her sweaty face. That'd take some time getting used to. Maybe they made some type of alien antiperspirant?

Ben switched subjects. "I didn't know Heatblast had super strength? How does that even work? You don't exactly have muscles or anything." Gwen felt a headache forming.

"I become a sentient flame and me being strong is what has your suspension of disbelief crashing down around you like Jenga blocks?"

Grandpa Max pressed the gas pedal and their night was over. Gwen wanted nothing more than a cold shower.

 _A portly man knocked on the door before him for what felt like the millionth time. Faded notes and notices obscured a shoddy plaque with the words "Dr. Animo" on the old door._

" _You in, doc? I need to talk to you ASAP!" He listened carefully. It sounded like millions of cockroaches were scuttling across the floor inside. A soft howl of some unidentifiable primate._

 _He shuddered_.

" _This is your last strike," The paper crumbled in his grasp, a child's snowball. "If you don't-"_

 _The door swung open to reveal the sickly looking tenant. His skin was ashen and he looked more disheveled than he had when he first came with the down payment for rent. Veins bulged in his neck and he was sure his legs were made of nothing but sagging skin, bone, and varicose veins._

 _He froze at the glare leveled at him._

" _If I don't do what, pray tell, if I don't do what exactly?"_

 _He swallowed around the tense ball of anxiety within his throat._

" _You're several months behind on rent. I own an apartment complex for professors and lab students at the local university- not a homeless shelter. Either you fork over the money you owe or I kick you out and get legal on you."_

" _As you know, all of my funds go into my...research. I do very important work and it should be understood that it is within complete importance that I focus on it."_

" _You can't just keep skirting on rent." he followed after Animo, foot catching the door to squeeze in._

" _I assure you, my money is better spent on improving the quality of our lives as a species. I am a very busy man."_

 _How he managed to cram cages upon cages within the small living space was beyond him. Various animals he was sure needed permits just to have in the country, let alone the state, stared at him with beady eyes. A tank full of frogs, a hen, and a lizard seemed to be taken care of the most in handling._

 _A shelf of jars and vials containing various structures within amber fluid. Charts and diagrams covered every available inch of wall space._

 _He adjusted his tie, loosening its chokehold on him._

 _The low lighting of the room only seemed to make Animo look more like a long abandoned exoskeleton._

" _L-listen here, doc. If you don't pony up the money I'll kick you out and inform all the right people in all the right places." Animo smiled with yellowed teeth._

" _Interesting choice of words for a man of your...low scientific caliber." Animo turned his back to him, gloved hand reaching into the frog tank. Animo inspected the specimen within his grasp for a drawn out moment. Set it down. The frog croaked, sound echoing in the apartment._

 _Animo reached into a draw to take out a contraption, placing it upon his greasy haired head. The device looked poorly put together, nothing more than a pasta drainer with two horn like poles at the time._

" _You're cracked, cracked as a rotten egg. You expect to muscle your way out of paying rent with a children's arts and crafts project?!"_

" _No, with my transmodulator I plan to blow your puny mind." He lifted a finger, nail blackened. "Phase number one: It creates and accelerates mutations at the genetic level. Observe." He turned the dial that was connected to his head set. His hand left his chest as red energy was channelled through the tines atop his head._

 _The frog on the floor grew drastically. Eyes forming and springing from the sides of its face. Horns grew from the top of its head. The changes happened in less than thirty seconds as the man tried to scramble backwards._

" _Would any volunteers step up to inspect the changes this one underwent on the inside." he tried to scream but the frog's tongue wrapped around him like a boa constrictor. The frog forced him within its mouth. He beat against its vocal sack, squirming in its hold._

" _What's that? I caaaan't hear you?" he cupped a hand near his ear, leaning in. "Hmm, hmm yes." the frog looked ahead blankly. The man's muffled shout was mostly confined within the frog._

" _Sounds like you've got a frog in your throat!" he cackled, wheezing his next words out._

" _Chin up! At least you aren't my companion. Imagine having a human in your throat!" he waited a moment longer listening to the man's cries grow fainter._

 _The frog spit him out and across the room, sending him slamming against the wall with a crack. A green mucus like substance coated the man, effectively super gluing him the floor._

 _He whipped out a newspaper clipping, frown settling deep within his sickly face. "Finally. Soon to having what is rightfully mine. All I need is a few lousy components to finish MY work!" The paper crumpled in his grasp._

 _The tv turned on. Animo flinched at the sudden noise. "So whatever you need from hairspray to state-of-the-art electronics you'll find them under one roof at the district's newest Mega Mart!" his eyes narrowed in thought._

" _Just what the...doctor… ordered." he mounted his experiment, casting not a single glance behind him._

" _Thank you for your time! Don't forget to support your local scientist!" he cooed to his unconscious landlord._

Gwen wandered the aisles of the Mega Mart, the dismal atmosphere doing little to keep her awake so early in the morning.

"Grandpa Max, please tell me we're not going to the pet aisle for breakfast." Grandpa Max laughed good naturedly at her horror but didn't answer her.

She turned to give Ben a pleading look only to find that he wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Grandpa, where's Ben?" Grandpa Max waved a hand in her direction

"Why don't you go looking for him? Maybe if you both find something on sale and agree on it, I'll buy it for you to share." he returned his attention to the hastily scribbled grocery list. Gwen eagerly took the chance to get out of walking around the store with her Grandfather. As much as she loved him she didn't want to hear about squid and fried lizard brains in a can, how her Dad managed to survive years of Grandpa Max's cooking was beyond her.

Ben, a creature of sweet, sweet predictability, was in the cereal aisle shaking various boxes. A pink tongue sticking out of his mouth in concentration.

"What are you doing, doofus? That hungry that you're shaking down cereal boxes to feel full?" she herself was one meal away from doing that too. Though of course she wouldn't say anything.

"No! The Sumo Slammers cards are in cereal again! I could get a _Gold_ card." he picked up another cereal box and shook it.

"Doesn't explain why you're shaking the box like a lunatic." Ben groaned, looking one step away from throwing the box in his hands at her face.

"As you said it the other day I'm "Mr. Know-It-All-About-Out-Of-This-World-Junk" so I'm gonna communicate with the aliens and ask which box has the Golden card," Ben grabbed her wrist and brought the Watch closer to his face. "Helloooo, Watch aliens? Tell me which box has my card!" he tapped at it with his hand after carelessly discarding the box he had been checking.

"Hey knock it off you-" In a flash of blue light everything shrank and her head felt fifty times heavier than it did moments prior. She blinked wide eyes up at her cousin, entire weight dangling from two of his fingers.

"Oops…" Ben gingerly plopped Gwen to fully rest in the cup of his palms.

"What did you do!?" four fingered hands went up to her throat in surprise. She squeaked more than her brother Ken when he lied about going to bed on time.

"I hit the Watch." Ben hung his head to look at Gwen properly. She glared at him with eyes possibly too big for her giant skull.

"That part was obvious!"

"But, hey. You got a new alien out of it?" Gwen settled down, a small hand cradling her chin.

"You have a point, but what does this one do?"

"You can scare your enemies by blinking sideways?" Gwen glared up at him, lower lip jutting out in a pout.

"Don't answer my question with a question! That's ridiculously inane." her three toed foot stomped down on Ben's hands.

"Why can't there be an alien of yours that doesn't use really big words? You'd think you're reading right out of a dictionary or something. Best in reading out loud award goes to Gwen Tennyson. There is no award, we're just saying there is so you can feel good. Blehhh!" he pulled a face, sticking his tongue out and showing only the whites of his eyes.

"Way to go, ignoramus! You used more than three words off of the summer vocabulary list. Let me turn into fire guy so I can handle that supreme burn! Oh, no! Looks like I can't do that because you turned me into an amphibian alien!" the two cousins had a moment's stand off, glaring at each other.

"That was alliteration." Ben noted, effectively breaking the tense silence. Gwen slapped a wide palm against her face, where her forehead would be if she wasn't a frog alien.

If she was going to be stuck as she was, she might as well take a look at herself to see exactly what this alien was. Three toes and four fingers, wide eyes impossibly wide for her skull. She felt her face with curious fingers. It seemed that she had gill like structures across her face for aquatic trips. Though she had no way of proving her hypothesis unless Ben held her head under a nearby water fountain. That however didn't sound very appealing at the moment.

A tight blue and white outfit covered her. The cuffs of her pants legs, sleeve ends, and a vertical stripe in the center of her chest were all a dark blue. The watch really went overboard with color coordinating.

She could work with it.

An adult stood over Ben's shoulder, glaring. Gwen very nearly had a heart attack at the sight of the scowling face. She held her breath and went deathly still.

"Ahem. Just what do you think you're doing," the older employee looked at the impromptu doll in Ben's grasp. "Man."

"I was double checking my action figure to make sure it didn't need batteries." the man looked skeptical, noting the boxes of cereal in slight disarray.

"Really? I had customers complain you were talking loudly to yourself."

"Not myself. My action figure! It's one of those ones that talk to you when you press a button. See?" Ben pressed his thumb down lightly on her shield shaped cartilage in her chest area, barely more pressure than resting his thumb there for half a second.

"Doofus alert! Doofus alert!" Gwen exclaimed in a squeaky voice.

"I'm really self aware?" Ben laughed, scratching behind his ear. The employee unfortunately didn't appear to find humor in Ben's attempt at a joke. Ben took off with Gwen in hand before he had the chance to pounce on Ben. Who knows where he would've been taken to. _Max Tennyson your grandson and his doll are looking for you at the front._ Not how Gwen wanted to spend her day.

Ben paused to catch his breath, double checking for the employee. The TV screens behind them were all off.

"That employee was too eager to get us in trouble. This new store can't even," the Watch gave a warning beep and Gwen took the chance to jump out of Ben's grip. A flash of red engulfed her at the second beep and she was back to business as usual. "Have its TVs on?"

Her entire body ached for a moment. She gently rolled her neck, several deafening pops resounded.

"I think that was the worst one yet."

"At least we lost 'em. I think?"

"Oh, gee, I wonder what made you think that." Gwen rolled her eyes.

"Hey! It was an accident you don't have to keep at it like there's a stick up your butt."

"I'll put a stick up _your_ butt." Ben groaned.

"Okay, let's just skip to the part where you forgive me and learn an important life lesson from my mistake?"

"I was going to-" the TVs flickered on, static loud enough near their ears that the two cousins nearly jumped half a feet in the air. "Now what?"

Part of the ceiling about two three yards away crumbled in and from the hole an old man riding a frog (toad? She couldn't be sure with all the panic coursing through her body) emerged.

" _**That's**_ what!" Ben leaned backwards, hands poised to grab onto something.

"Oh." she felt small compared to the beast before her. The man on top looked like someone, determined by her Mother's keen eye and startling wit, called a hippie. To Gwen he looked like an old man who hadn't showered in a very long time.

"Gross." Gwen and Ben said together.

The elderly man dismounted his...Gwen gave up trying to classify the thing at that moment. The elderly man dismounted his freaky frog monster that was bigger than biology gave it any right to be.

The pair backed up and hid in between display stands. Cardboard boxes gave an extra amount of security. Ben peeked out at the man. Gwen almost wished she blended in as well as he did. Almost.

"What's he doing?" Gwen asked. Eyes locked on the dial of her Watch. It remained red no matter how hard she willed it to change.

"He's in the electronics department. I think he's getting batteries? I can't tell." Gwen rolled her eyes.

"Is he or isn't he?"

"I think he's getting more than batteries." Ben hid himself completely in case the old man decided to be paranoid.

"This isn't good. Ben he's either completely confident in his frog monster or he's got more of those things." The Watch was as unyielding as her Mother in an argument. Of course there was no need to panic. The Watch could reset and she'd be able to get the situation under control. If worse came to worse there was always plan B.

"Well what do we do?" She stood corrected. Everything _was_ okay until the cardboard boxes came tumbling down, in the unreasonably loud deserted section of the Mega Mart.

The old man's head whipped around, glaring at Gwen through his bug eyed red goggles. It was a miracle he could see anything at all through them.

"Don't be a hero, kid. Run along now." he walked off as if he had only chastised a child and not a girl with an alien Watch that let her change into ten different aliens that could take him out any day. Any time. If it would go blue again.

Gwen heard footsteps behind her run to catch up to their location.

"Freeze! Stop right there!" one of the security guards yelled. He froze, terror filling his large face. "G-get off that giant...frog...thing…Put your..up. Put your-"

"My _what_ up? My frog up? Gladly!" The old man cackled as the frog hopped over their heads and away. The store's floors shook like there was an earthquake going on. The first man who spoke pulled out a radio.

"We got a grab and dash in electronics. Repeat a grab and dash in electronics. Suspect male, elderly, approximately 5"6...riding on a giant frog or or a uh toad. T-trust me, you can't miss it!"

Gwen and Ben disentangled themselves from the pile of boxes with only minimal effort.

"Grandpa!" Gwen exclaimed. That thing was going to get to Grandpa Max and hurt other civilians if she didn't stop it.

"You mean it's going to Grandpa Max? Where is he?" Ben's voice went squeaky, eyes darting around the shop.

"Pet aisle, you'll hear and smell it. No way to miss it." Ben took off like a bullet fresh out of a revolver.

"You get Crazy Frog over there and I'll get Grandpa!" Gwen nodded in agreement though he skidded around a corner before he could see.

Plan B it was. Gwen rolled her neck, took a few steps back. Knelt low and ran after Ben. She silently thanked her Mother for getting her non slip shoes as opposed to Ben's "stylish shoes".

Grandpa Max looked at some of the small rodents the Mega Mart kept in stock. He doubted either of his grandchildren would want such a thing. There went potential bonding. He'd have to hold a funeral for it, buy some flowers and wear his sunday best.

"Grandpa!" Ben wheezed as he came into view. He hadn't seen Ben move that fast for anything in his life and he grew immediately alarmed.

"Ben?" Ben didn't so much as slow down, barreling right into him. Grandpa Max felt the wind get knocked out of him for a solid three seconds.

"You need to move!" Ben wheezed, voice urgent.

"Ben calm down, what's going on?"

"Old guy...giant fro-" Ben's voice died down, drowned out by the sound of everything around them shaking. A few of the more skittish animals voiced their protest.

Said old man came into view, straddling the back of a large frog. He cranked what looked like a kitchen timer dial. _Click click click…_

Grandpa Max ducked out of the way, scooping Ben into his arms. The red light from the old man's head gear narrowly missed them.

One of the rodents kept in the cages behind them and a bird, however, were not as lucky.

They rapidly grew in size, hardly resembling the creatures they once were.

"Rise! Rise to your full potential, my pets!"

"A-ah man, what kinda pet food are they selling here?" Grandpa Max frowned to himself. Ben kept chattering on unhindered.

"I thought only Japan had to worry about giant monsters..."

"I will get what I deserve! Mark my words… Today I will make history." Ben gulped at Dr. Animo's expression.

"Or should I say...prehistory! Hahahahahaha!"

"If you hadn't drawn me into your stupid search I could be saving you now!" Gwen grumbled as she glared ahead of her, green eyes narrowed.

Gwen came in atop her mighty scooter brandishing a jump rope looped through her belt loops and a basketball.

She chucked the basketball at the… enhanced life form and scooted along on her motorized scooter for her life… and the lives of her two family members with her. No pressure.

Like the untamed (formerly would be house pet) animal it was, it bounded off after her. Knocking over display cases in its haste to dig it's elongated teeth (more tusk like than anything else) into her.

Winding between the different sections of the store without crashing was a daunting enough task as it was without the added hassle of having a giant rodent in hot pursuit.

Her eyes darted around as an idea began to formulate in her head. She ducked just in time for the animal to soar over her and body slam the stand to her side. It shook its head, impact enough to disorient it only slightly.

"Come on, come on." She moaned as she sped up, propelling herself into the air and on top of the high shelf. Her heart thudded _bump bum bump bum bum bum bump._

She stared down at the ground, wheels skidding across the edge of the stand. Everything moved in slow motion, she has the distant thought of breaking both her legs in the fall and then she's off the edge and descending. She bends her knees to absorb the impact.

 _Kuhn! Clink clink. Clunk._

The two stands fall behind her and traps the oversized rodent. She flinches slightly at the sound of glass shattering and cans crunching. They would owe the store owner _so much._

"Gwen!" Grandpa and Ben skidded around the corner, eyes wide.

"Cleanup on aisle six." The overhead intercom system came to life with a crackle of static. The man's voice sounded odd and not in the least bit startled by the turn of events.

Thinking about it made her head fill with white noise. She's snapped out of her stupor at the sound of her cousin's enthusiastic voice.

"Whoo! Way to go, Gwen!" Ben hollered, rushing up to his cousin with Grandpa Max at his side. His green eyes were wide, pupils blown up bigger than they had any right to be given the fact that she was the one who had been in the fray and not him.

The ground rumbled once more and Gwen really wasn't in the mood to mess around with that old man from before.

"You fool," just her luck "you cannot stop me! I will turn Washington D.C. into Washington B.C.!" Dr. Animo called a large white bird to him with a sharp whistle. His avian companion crashed through the large glass dome and together they flew off into the mid morning sun.

The three Tennyson's ducked to avoid being hit by Dr. Animo's frog lackey as it made to follow its master.

The manager from before rushed over to them, hands gesturing wildly.

"You just saved the store! How can I ever repay you?" Gwen turned her eyes to the man, mind still on the events that had just transpired.

'Cover that incident from over and forget we were here?" Gwen said, hands going to Ben and Grandpa to draw them away. Grandpa went along easily, but a look of despair filled Ben's face for a moment.

"B-but?!" the store owner started, dumbfounded.

"We have to go, sorry for the trouble." Grandpa Max added. Ben huffed a sigh.

"We have a giant parrot to follow." Gwen whispered, urging Ben on. His shoulders slumped but he went along as well.

They had been following the parrot for _hours._ The day faded long ago. Ben's stomach growled loudly from the booth seat. How had they managed to lose track of a giant bird multiple times was beyond him. His legs dangled over the seat as he stared up at the weathered ceiling above him. He'd given up looking outside at every little flash of movement and instead laid across the booths.

"Ah, just like the good ol' days- before I retired." Grandpa let out a contented sigh, eyes half lidded. Gwen looked up from her laptop.

"Sooo… exactly what kind of plumber _**were**_ you, Grandpa?"

Grandpa shifted in his seat, hands tightening around the steering wheel.

"Ah..uh uh a darn good one." Gwen knew when a conversation was over and returned her attention to her laptop, scanning through lines of text.

Grandpa Max's eyes looked back at Ben's slumped down form.

"Ben? What's the matter?"

"Isn't fighting and tracking bad guys supposed to be exciting?" Ben crossed his arms across his chest, biting his lip. "Nothing. All we have to show for all the time spent is some old guy on a giant bird flying circles around D.C."

"Don't mind him, Grandpa, he's just cranky because he's hungry."

"Being a hero isn't about action and adventure, it's about helping people because you _can_. Even if it's inconvenient, you do your best to help because you have something, something unique to you that you can use to help."

"Did you get that one off a Hallmark special?" Ben snorts, but grows quiet. Grandpa Max rolls his eyes.

"Bingo!" Gwen shatters the tense silence, "Five years ago, Dr. Animo was a promising researcher in veterinary science, but… it turned out he was doing all these twisted genetic experiments where he was mutating animals." A younger looking Animo looked off to the side, distaste filling his countenance.

"And when he didn't win some big prize called the Varieties award, he _flipped out_. He claimed to be doing what needed to be done. That obviously wasn't right."

The parrot cawed loudly, the cry echoing in Gwen's ears for a moment. A chill ran through her.

"Drats!" Gwen could just barely see the bird swoop out of sight. "We've lost him."

"Great. Just great! He could be anywhere in Washington D.C.!" Ben made a thoughtful noise.

"Or Washington B.C.," her cousin turned around in his seat, green eyes flashing with excitement "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Gwen's mind raced for a second before she smirked.

"The Natural History Museum!" they chorused together.

"I have the address and directions on my computer, Grandpa!"

They stood outside of the museum, wall crumbled in and a giant feather left scattered amongst the rubble. Ben squatted to observe it.

"Bingo!"

"Something tells me we're on the right track here." Grandpa Max smiled at the pair. Ben stood brandishing the feather.

"I wonder if the government's gonna cover this whole thing up when we're done?"

"And _I'm_ the alien freak." Ben snorted, dropping the feather.

"If the shoe fits!"

"Now's not the time you two."

The trio crept through the halls of the museum. _Crick crick crick crick._ The cousins shared a look.

Ben ran his fingers over a stray M-Mart container.

Ahead where the shadows didn't swallow all the elderly scientist slumped over one of his inventions, back to them.

His movements ceased as he went stock still, as if listening for something. Though they scarcely dared to breathe.

"You." Dr. Animo spat the words out, turning his head in their general direction. As if he had to clear up the misunderstanding and clarify who he's addressing. "Are very persistent- I hate persistent."

Ben stepped forward, though his back was ramrod straight.

"Stop right there, freak! We know aaaaall about your horrible experiments. The jig's up and you're through!" Gwen barely restrained the urge to face palm. Though his words were right and just about what she would say, the delivery was off.

"Oh but it's only just begun. Phase two is here with the aid of a… few extra parts. Of course it was only slightly difficult to acquire them and I would've much preferred you had minded your own business. But yes, phase two: The reanimation of dormant cells!"

Dormant cells…

"You must be an idiot. No scientist's ever been able to clone dinosaurs. The only dormant cells you'll find in dinosaurs are from frozen fossils! None of the fossils or models in this room are frozen fossils!" Gwen glared up at Dr. Animo.

"If you had truly read my work you would know that the "reanimation of dormant cells" is a broader title than you would've thought! The chicken is a modern descendant of the dinosaurs! By tracing evolutionary lines I was able to create the elixir of life! For creatures of just bone I can create flesh and blood for my own use!" Dr. Animo grinned at the trio.

"Though I won't go into detail of just how I do this, you see, I'm still awaiting my patent!"

"Does this guy come with subtitles?" Ben asked, scratching along the nape of his neck.

The doctor turned his back for a moment, fiddling with his equipment. Gwen untied the jump rope from around her waist and handed it to Ben, careful to not make a sound. Ben held it within a white knuckled grip.

Grandpa Max nodded.

"Observe!"

Dr. Animo slammed his hand onto the DNA Transmodulator, a careless twisting of his hand. A ray of red energy emerged from the device, striking the colossal Wooly Mammoth.

In a flash of red light the long deceased creature breathed once again.

She couldn't have just been sent to summer camp like everyone else.

"Grandpa! Get out of here!" Gwen shouted, squaring Dr. Animo up. The wooly mammoth let out a deafening cry.

"You're gonna need a heavy hitter, dweeb!" Gwen flipped through her aliens, holding off from heeding Ben's advice as long as possible.

"Worry about the giant parrot, doofus! Kind of hard to miss!"

She smacked her hand down over the Watch's face. In a flash of blue light her world shifted around her. Musculature shifting and bones she previously didn't possess, growing. She'd never been so tall in her life, or had most of her body parts in sets of four. She clenched her four fists. This would work.

"You'll regret this."

Gwen scoffed, voice deepened and raspy enough that she nearly didn't recognize it as her own.

"Bring it, freak!" The Woolly Mammoth charged at Dr. Animo's command.

"Behold the genius that is Dr. Animo!" The old man cackled, arms stretched out above his head. He took off, running faster than a man his age should've been able to.

Gwen beckoned the beast to her, jumping onto it's head to avoid being gored. She took a hold of each tusk with two of her hands, her other two hands wrapping around her midsection. She jerks the Woolly Mammoth's head back before it has time to react. Stomping both her feet along its spine.

"Grandpa- Ben! Get the," she grunts with the effort of remaining on the Woolly Mammoth's neck "Get the doctor! We can't let anything get away!"

Ben and Grandpa Max rushed off to follow Dr. Animo down the corridor they had seen him heading for last.

The parrot blocked their way, squawking at them in warning. Grandpa Max stuck out an arm to brace Ben back from the giant bird.

Ben pushed past his Grandfather, hands gripping at the jump rope he'd been given.

"Ben don-!" Before Grandpa Max could finish his warning Ben was running at the oversized bird. By sheer dumb luck (call it fate) he managed to make it onto the bird's back, jump rope around its neck like a cheap leash.

Grandpa tried to move after it but Dr. Animo's parrot was too fast and the ground shook enough to knock him to his knees.

Gwen came bounding down the corridor as Grandpa Max got to his feet.

"Grandpa? Where's Ben?"

"We need to get him! Come on!" Gwen gathered Grandpa Max in her arms and ran as Grandpa Max directed her.

Doctor Animo stood in the next room, fiddling with the transmodulator once more. Only this time instead of an herbivore he stood before…

"You're too late!" Dr. Animo activated his transmodulator and the Tyrannosaurus rex breathed new life once more.

"Oh…" Grandpa Max murmured, jaw dropping. He's glad for a second that Gwen has him within her arms. He's sure that his bloodless legs would fold under him.

"I'd love to stay but, I need to claim the reward I so… richly deserve." Dr. Animo mounted the large carnivore and made his own exit.

The parrot circled overhead just outside, and with little more than a nod from Dr. Animo, went the opposite direction.

Gwen sets Grandpa Max aside and leaps after the bird, a crater left in her wake. A faded newspaper article catches Grandpa Max's eye.

Gwen soars through the air and lands on the parrot's back with enough momentum to unbalance it in the air for a moment. It readily rights itself, squawking at her with unconstrained rage.

"Stop!" She shouts, voice just shy of cracking. If anything, the parrot speeds up. She slips off of it's back with little more than a few handfuls of feathers for her trouble.

She descends, Watch letting out a warning beep as Ben stared down at her, wide green eyes filled with absolute terror.

"No!"

She crashes through the parking area with enough force to kill a few dozen men. She lands on her feet, knees bent to absorb the force. The Watch let's out two more warning beeps in quick succession and in a blast of light she's returned to herself.

Gwen scrambles out of the crater, eyes trained on the sky.

"Ben!"

She stumbles on her feet, adrenaline pumping within her veins over time.

Gwen hears the Rust Bucket before she sees it.

The door is ajar and she knows better than to hesitate. She takes a running start and hops into the RV as it flies past her. She flops onto her abdomen once inside, wind knocked out of her.

"You okay, kiddo?" Grandpa Max asks, not looking at her.

Gwen hums, closing the door behind her and collapsing onto the passenger seat.

"Any sight of him?"

"The bird's just ahead of us. I have this," Grandpa Max thrusted the crumpled up newspaper article into her outstretched hand.

"Dr. Kelly accepts Varies award? We know where to go after we get Ben then."

The jump rope was never intended to hold his weight and Ben watches on in rapt horror as it begins to fray. The more the bird moves, the quicker the rope gives out.

' _Not cool!'_ his heart thuds a million beats per second, bile rising up to his throat.

' _I don't want to die!' he bites the inside of his cheek hard enough to draw blood, stomach flip flopping as he tumbles head over feet off of the bird._

His attention snapped out of thoughts of his imminent death by a familiar presence.

"Wha-" Ben began, eyes following a streak of green in his peripheral. He feels like he's flying for but a moment, frozen in time with no way to call for help. His green eyes widen and he feels a pressure along his sides before the feeling's gone and the bird's talons are securing him in their hold.

Civilians' screams echoed throughout the air, as people scrambled away from the carnage Dr. Animo's romp in the caused.

"I'll get my just deserts!" the flames around him reflected within his darkened glasses.

Ben's carelessly dropped off at the Washington Monument.

His heart races as he feels his body fall for a moment before he remembers the frayed-. He blinks at the green rope within his hands. Ben throws the rope over the top and catches himself long enough to grab onto the pointed top of the monument. The rope holds steady against his weight.

Gwen and Grandpa Max swerve to the Washington Monument, suspicions confirmed as they watch Dr. Animo's parrot fly away from the scene.

A black and white dot could be seen at the top.

"Gwen you have to save your cousin!" Gwen nodded, eyes going to the Watch. She flipped through her aliens and found one with what appeared to be wings.

Her body morphed, four eyes bugging out of her skull. Insectoid wings sprouted from her back and she knew she'd have a kink to work out later.

"Grandpa, you have to go inside." Grandpa Max looked at her for a hard minute before nodding and sprinting to the popular tourist spot's interior.

Ben shuffled his feet uselessly doing his best to hang on just a little longer.

"What is this rope made of?!"

"Need a ride, doofus?" Ben nearly jumped out of his skin, sweaty palms faltering around the jump rope.

He sails through the air with a scream before landing on the solid back of his cousin in alien covers his nose for a moment, mustering up the will power to ignore the stench.

"Not cool, Stinkfly!" He can practically feel the glare his cousin sends him.

"Would you have preferred to be a pancake instead? No? Then shut up." The parrot of course had to make a come back at that moment.

"Hold on this is going to be a ride." Ben clung to her back, a faint gagging noise could be heard. Gwen frowned in alien form, doing quick laps around the monument.

"Would it have killed the founding Fathers to have installed an elevator?" Grandpa Max panted. It could be the thing that killed his grandson if luck weren't on their side. Luck and a granddaughter that could alter her DNA with alien technology.

"I can't shake it! You'll have to trust me, doofus." She felt Ben nod against her back, trembling in the slightest.

Gwen flipped herself over midair and Ben fell like a boy sized bowling ball for a moment before she caught him under the armpits.

"I-I'm gonna be sick…"

"Remember: just trust me!"

Grandpa Max finally made it to the top, huffing and puffing. He caught sight of Gwen with Ben dangling from her arms like a ragdoll fast approaching.

He picked up the pace again, arms sticking out of the window before he could even say his Grandson's name.

"Come…" there was a woosh of air and Grandpa Max braced himself for the sudden weight, arms securing around Ben "to Grandpa!" Gwen took off without checking on her cousin's well being.

Once out of ear shot and finally adjusted to solid ground once more, Ben leaned out the window to throw up. Grandpa Max gently rubbed at his grandson's back, soothing words spilling from his lips.

"I'm honored to simply be taken into consideration for such a prestigious award. Thank you all so much!"

Dr. Animo came in with a memorable appearance, a literal bang. Glass shattered around him and the T. Rex he rode atop of. He glared down at the two men as attendees scattered.

"Kelly, I do believe you have something of _mine_!" Dr. Animo dismounted the dinosaur and snatched the small award away.

"I'd like to thank this committee for this honor!" the grin splits his face, cracked lips curling up with mirth.

Dr. Animo mounted his dinosaur companion once more as it bared its killer teeth and gaping maw to the frightened scientist.

Gwen body slammed into the creature's forehead, right between the eyes.

"You!" Dr. Animo screeched glaring at the young girl. The attack disorientated her alongside the large dinosaur, though it recovered faster than she did. Gwen had little to no time to react to the tail swinging into her midsection.

She crashed through the air like an insect that hit an electric bug zapper. She hits the ground with a thud and takes a half second to recover the oxygen stolen from her.

"Oh, I don't think so…"

"S-somebody help me!" Kelly screamed, dangling from the back of his suit within the collosal predator's mouth.

She took off again, renewed energy. Who knew seeing a balding scientist in danger was so motivational?

Gwen swept in just as the T. Rex had tossed Kelly into the air and threw back its head.

Kelly screams from her arms and struggles for half a second.

"What are you, you little pest?!" Dr. Animo screamed, brows drawn together.

"I'm just doing what's right!" Dr. Animo grunted in frustration. "You're such a brat. I asked what you were not what your purpose was!"

The "antennae" of Dr. Animo's helmet glowed red, streams of energy fired at the young hero.

Gwen avoided the whole while, drawing his attention away from Kelly long enough for him to run away to safety along with the others. Dr. Animo wailed in unconstrained rage, his dinosaur companion growing all the more anxious and aggressive.

Dr. Animo shot his beams where she had been a second prior. ' _Too slow!'_

Gwen took the opportunity to fire green goo from her four eyes. ' _Disgusting! Disgusting!'_ the T. Rex panicked, jerking it's head back and forth, completely blinded. Goo dripped to its nose.

' _T. Rex had a great sense of smell but I took two of its senses away with that one.'_

Dr. Animo looked on in despair, oblivious to Gwen darting in close to him to grab the award, tossing it aside. That snapped him out of it.

"Nooo! My award!" he whipped his head back to her, fast enough to make him dizzy. Gwen took the chance to extract the Transmodulator from his head. Like the award it too met an early demise.

A stream of red light came from the gadget. The dinosaur Dr. Animo sat upon's musculature peeled away and, like a house of cards, its skeleton came crashing down.

Dr. Animo struggled to stay on it, shouting a chorus of "no no no no". Gwen swore she saw something appear around the elderly villain. Though when she blinked it was gone. Within the darkness of the building she had seen something that wasn't there.

Gwen yawned, detransforming in a flash of light. It had been a long night.

Grandpa Max and Ben stood before the parrot, the bird flapping its wings and jerking its head at them in warning.

A red light passed over it and a mighty beast it was no longer. It fluttered over to Ben, perching on his shoulder. Its feathers puffed up as it clicked its tongue at him.

"Well would you like at that." Grandpa Max smiled. Ben glared at the bird.

"You're on thin ice." he said, two fingers reaching out to scratch under its chin.

Gwen and Ben sat in their booth seats, across from each other. A card box in between them.

"I know… I know you didn't get your golden Sumo Slammer card or whatever but I picked you up a souvenir." Gwen passed over a fragment of the Transmodulator to her cousin.

"Cool!" Ben grinned at the scientific marvel within his hands for a moment before his smile turned softer.

"Thanks for saving me."

"I had no choice I never would've heard the end of it from Grandpa Max." Gwen smiled back, chin resting on her palm. She yawned again.

"It's been a long night, huh Gwen. Since it's morning and the excitement's died down, you two should get some shut eye. I'll get us to the nearest rest stop and fill up on gas."

The two cousins nodded and trekked back to their "room". Ben took "top bunk" and Gwen collapsed in her clothes on the bottom bunk, instantly asleep.

 _The culprit Aloysius Annemayo," a faint cry of "An-I-mo" was heard from the old scientist. "age fifty-six, has been apprehended. After being scorned by his colleges he decided to enact revenge with the specimens found in the Natural History Museum. He is safely in police custody."_

" _I deserve that award! I had it coming to me! I want it!"_

 _The TV illuminated black eyes behind cat-eye glasses and pearly white teeth in the otherwise pitch dark room._

" _Just what the doctor ordered." A cheshire grin was the last thing seen before the TV went out, a green streak and then nothing._


End file.
